


Each In Their Season

by peoriapeoria



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, M/M, Mpreg, Omegaverse, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-30
Updated: 2013-03-30
Packaged: 2017-12-06 23:58:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/741708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers finds the Future isn't his only new adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Each In Their Season

"I'm pregnant?" Steve Rogers pulled on his tee-shirt. He normally didn't need to see S.H.E.I.L.D. medical except after missions. Even then it was more for their edification than treatment, unless he had shrapnel he couldn't reach. "How-" he lifted his hand, "wasn't this noticed earlier?"

"No one was looking for it. Your records list you as an Alpha."

"Clearly not if I'm pregnant." He'd been a Beta before the Serum, just as his parents had been. "Is it okay?" He'd saved Manhattan not knowing. He'd saved the Eastern Seaboard. 

"Yes. I'd like to wait before saying how far along it is. Given your metabolism, eat more if you feel hungry." The doctor handed Steve a pamphlet of foods to avoid and preparation precautions to follow.

Steve stood and took his leave. Unexpected wasn't just an understatement. The possibility had been at the back of his mind; Betas just weren't that fertile, even with Alphas. Peggy was such a force of will, and when she asked him, actually asked him, him not making love with her was unthinkable. It had been glorious.

This was a bonus. He had lost his world, but he had something, someone to show for it. He would have to find out how people arranged childcare in the current world. In his parents' day, children knew where they were just as welcome as at home. He'd spent time after school writing old people's letters and reading to rooms doing piecework. His parents hadn't been well-off, what with his father dying by inches from mustard gas, Steve's own health problems; his mother contracting TB on the ward had been the final bale. The nuns were pleased with him, he drew them several lithographic stones for others to etch.

Steve looked up at the Tower. It still didn't have the beauty of the Chrysler or the Empire State, but it wasn't as ugly as he'd said angry with a world that made no sense. He headed inside and went to the team elevator that accessed the private levels.

"JARVIS, how do people provide non-family childcare?"

"In general, or do you have a more specific situation in mind?"

Steve acknowledged he was being unfair. "Someone with irregular hours and a very public job."

"I will vet a list for you, Captain Rogers."

"Thank you."

\-----------------------

Pepper was the first one who noticed. "Steve." She guided him away from the others and quirked her lips at him. "You're glowing."

"Thank you."

"Have they met, the team and your--"

Steve dropped his voice. "I'm four, four and half months along."

The surprise barely rested on her face. "You've--"

"Before." It had surprised Steve to be that far along, Peggy hadn't mounted him, clenched around him until his war was almost over. The best conjecture was that he hadn't been frozen entirely solid, and that from time to time the fetus could grow.

"Oh." She looked towards the team.

He hadn't told them yet. There had been one call to Assemble since the Battle of Manhattan, and he'd been at the library. He'd been told it wasn't worth suiting up for, they were almost done when he called in.

He stepped back to the team and got their attention. "I going to be having a child, so I won't be in the field with you for a time."

"That's why all the small group practices." Tony could be quite perceptive.

Natasha looked at him, then elbowed Clint.

"Let me be more clear. I'm pregnant, so I won't be Assembling. I will be at Tactical Command."

Clearly Tony hadn't been as perceptive as Steve had granted from the spit take, an impressive one worthy of the Silents. Bruce was looking him over.

"It's doubted that it will show, with my shirt on, as anything but a loss of condition."

"JARVIS, find us a bodydouble or we need field holographics."

"Yes, Sir."

"What?" Steve had accepted Tony's hairpin turns and it was faster explained than thinking them out.

"Unless you don't mind all the tabloids coming up with one dire illness after another. Who's the baby's..." Tony flapped his hand. "Why is English so screwed up?"

"The baby's Dam was someone I knew in the war."

"Kinky Cap, you graverobber you."

Steve wasn't dignifying that. They hadn't included Peggy Carter in his packet. She hadn't been a Commando. The only reason he saw her as much as he did was SSR and Howard were also with Col. Phillips. Stark the Elder liked Peggy as a winger. It had been very confusing, the ways of Alphas. He hadn't looked her up, she had no reason to remember him and it was likely she was dead.

Peggy was a spy, pretty unusual for an Alpha. He looked at Natasha. Well, maybe only because the successes were unknown.

"The Serum didn't make you an Alpha."

Steve knew that the Other Guy was an Alpha, though Bruce was a Beta. General Ross had hidden Dr. Robert Ross, as was his right regarding an Unbonded Omega. The biochemist had sent away all other suitors. "No, it didn't. I think that was only ever press." They had put a big A on his helmet.

Thor clapped his hands. "We shall have a feast, to rejoice with this news."

"JARVIS, make it happen. Steve, any cravings?" He smirked, making it clear it wasn't just a question about food.

"I've placed the orders, Sir."

\----------------

"Hi, Capple Pie."

It had taken some getting used to, Tony's way of talking. He wondered if that was Starks or just being wealthy. "Tony."

"Hormones kicking your ass yet?" Tony grinned. "You should date."

That shocked him, and he thought he was done being surprised by Tony. "I'm a Beta." Dating was something Alphas did, either to get to know Omegas prior to Heat, or to make arrangements with Betas.

"I could find you someone."

Steve looked at Tony. "It doesn't work that way."

"You just keep thinking that and about America."

Steve fought the blush that formed. He thought about Peggy while he pumped into his hand. Thought about being in her while he fingered his hole. He'd read as a young man some stories, clearly made up, of harems full of Betas and Omegas, whose Alpha would take them two at a time. He'd drawn the tangles of shoulders and feet, trying to figure that out. Some of those sketches paid a few months' rent. 

He had to use lube and the angle was odd. Lifting up into Peggy had been perfect, and she kept pinning him down with her thighs. She kneaded his chest in her hands. The hormones were bad.

Tony was smug.

\----------------------

"CAPTAIN AMERICA HAVING TONY STARK'S BABY" Steve hadn't been able to stop staring at the headline. Pepper sat down, placing a hand over his.

"They do this every time their sales are down. It's whole cloth, no hint of a leak. I'm sorry you were dragged into this, it's the consequence of an Unbonded multibillionaire."

"It's not right. It's not true, and even if it were why would they say this," he pointed at the paper. "Why me?"

"You are big, a legend. Thor might be a God, but that makes him a little unapproachable. It's not like Tony's seen as often with the glitteratti anymore. If you were an editor, would you rather use Hulk or Black Widow?"

"What? Hawkeye isn't good enough for Stark?" The voice came from the vents, but Clint entered the kitchen through the door.

"Agent would go Minority Report on them." Tony got a mug of coffee and sat next to Steve. "No kiss?" He looked towards Pepper. "Anything beyond the usual non-reaction?"

"No, Tony."

"I'll be in the lab then." He got back up and left.

\------------------

JARVIS didn't let him paint the nursery; painters were hired. He watched taped interviews with caregivers. He could tell they'd been military, or agents, sometimes both. The baby liked to roll and somersault. If he rubbed his stomach while it was pushing out it would wriggle.

He still jogged though not for as long or as far. Fortunately, there hadn't been a major adversary for the Avengers though that wouldn't hold. Steve swam a lot now.

Tony was a stalker, he knew that. He had also made a scrapbook of the tabloids-so, he had JARVIS make one. It was multimedia.

He wanted Steve. Okay, so he had a crush on Captain America, but he thought he might love Steve. He liked him, Tony didn't know that anyone had ever liked him without being paid first. Rhodey was a special case. They'd known each other off and on since they were tiny kids. It had taken them awhile to figure that out, at MIT.

Tony didn't get love, hadn't had it, didn't understand it, but Steve was different. He brought him food, and bustled him to bed (oh, if only he'd join Tony) and treated the robots kindly. They said dogs knew, and his robots were better than dogs.

Tony liked sex. He'd had a lot of it, and it was always good; sometimes it was spectacular. He wanted it with Steve. He didn't have it as often after Afghanistan. He'd kept a tank top on for Pepper. She'd had to change the arc reactor, and its light was too much reminder.

Who had knocked up the Captain? Tony wanted a chance.

\---------------------

The vibrator helped. It felt wrong when he was on his back until he got his hips rolling. He found that if he knelt beside the bed he could work his hole and his cock.

Sometimes he drew triads. Never faces. Sometimes Steve thought about meeting someone. Peggy had seen him as he was, how he had been, wasn't impressed with Captain America. That last wasn't quite true, she was taken with his pectorals. He'd fibbed a bit to Tony as well; Betas did go out, they just didn't call it dating. Bucky was pretty brazen, and one might say some of the friends he found were fast. No one had been taken with him, pre-Serum Steve, but some were kinder than others.

He got the idea now people didn't think so much about it if Betas got together. They also didn't seem to mind if relationships didn't last. Steve wasn't sure it was worth the change. He didn't know what would have happened after the war. Peggy probably would have settled in with an Omega. Maybe he'd have seen her, perhaps not. He might not have wanted to, when it was a choice. He never had that choice, he had fought all the pilots, all the Hydra fanatics, beaten the Red Skull and there had been no choice but to crash the plane.

That kiss had been daring. Distracting. Phillips' comment had gotten him back in the game. Steve stripped and got out the lube and the vibrator.

\-------------------

Tony felt foolish. In one hand he carried a basket of fruits and vegetables, with some flowers too. He couldn't tell you what was which without JARVIS, and that was the point here. The other hand, arm, carried a box. It wasn't lost on Tony that Steve liked to draw. He thought he painted too, but he drew nearly anywhere. Tony had put in some supplies, erasers, charcoal, color pencils, pastels. He couldn't help himself, he liked to spend money.

"JARVIS, announce me."

Steve opened his door, looked at Tony strangely and then stepped aside.

"I brought you some things. JARVIS can give you instructions on how" Tony handed him the basket.

"Artichokes and cockscomb, thanks."

Tony sat the box on a table while Steve filled a vase.

"Would you like something to drink, a snack?"

"Sure." He realized he should have said more when Steve snorted. The glass of lemonade was too perfect. He saw Steve look at the box. "Open it, that's for you too."

Steve did, flicking out a knife to cut the tape. Tony wasn't even sure why he'd taped it shut. Two whelk shells, a pine cone, a malachite paperweight, a handful of acorn caps and a light pull came out. So did the supplies, stacked to one side except for the blenders. Steve got up and came back with a board, paper and tin box.

Good. Art was like engineering. You could give a puzzle. Tony had been missing Steve down in the lab; only belatedly had it dawned on him his workroom wasn't the best place for plus one onboard. It was difficult to remember Steve was pregnant, he wasn't showing.

"How far along are you? The pregnancy."

"Oh, almost eight months."

"You haven't been de-iced a full six months."

"I did say the Dam was from the war."

"You didn't say she was during the war." Tony realized this wasn't going in a direction conducive. "Who was she?"

"That doesn't matter."

"She did. I think I know you well enough that you thought she was special." Tony watched Steve tip his head, hiding his blue eyes. "Aunt Peggy would know."

"Aunt?!"

"You and Peggy?" Tony thought about it. Yeah, given how old Howard had been, and thus at how much a remove Tony was, Peggy would have been about Steve's age. "You haven't told her."

"I didn't know she was alive."

"Did you ask?" Tony looked at Steve. "Why didn't you ask?" 

"I was afraid, afraid to find out she was dead, afraid to find out she was alive. People don't find out they got someone pregnant more than sixty years ago."

"Sometimes they do?"

"Not when the child hasn't been born and will be." Steve paused while Tony granted the observation. "Aunt Peggy?"

"I suspect she was checking up on Howard. You know he didn't stop having his hand in various projects just because the war was over. It's part of what made Stark Industries a preferred vendor. He did what he wanted."

"Yeah, flying over enemy airspace."

"She never mentioned that. Hinted, never said."

"It was a good thing I came back when I did, Col. Phillips didn't have a leash for Howard." Steve paused. "Did she have kids?"

"Yeah. Bonded with an Omega whose Alpha had been lost at Normandy."

"I'm going to have to tell her."

"Not today."

Steve nodded. He got up, arranged the produce and sketched.

\------------

"May I speak with Mistress Carter? This is Steven Rogers."

"I will see if she is in." The housekeeper put the phone to hold. Nurse?

"Tony, this is a joke in poor taste."

"Peggy, it's not Tony."

"You are late, Rogers. How are you finding this New World?"

"At least Huxley was off his mark. I only just found--"

"Because you didn't ask. No, it's okay, you've had quite the shock I'm sure. You'll need another dance instructor, that offer expired many parliaments ago."

"Understood." Steve could hear Peggy through the now aged voice. "I've some news, fairly old news, that I feel would be better suited to me telling you in person"

"Turn on your display. JARVIS, turn on Captain Rogers' display."

She looked at him. Her lipstick was still bright, not red, but the pink was striking against pale skin. Her white hair had been cut close.

"Have you been able to see me this whole call?"

"I'd forgotten how young you were. Yes, Steve, not that you'd be anything less than presentable. This news of yours?"

"I'm pregnant. It's not a problem, I'm happy, just figured you deserved to know."

"Would you stand up? I'd like you to turn around."

Steve did as asked. "Peggy?"

"So beautiful, young and brave. The world wasn't ready for you, Steve. You're a legend, use that when they try to grind you up. I did mourn you. Have a good life."

The connection was dead.

\---------------------------------

"What did that bag ever do to you?" Tony approached, scooping up Steve's water bottle on the way. He handed it over.

"She didn't care." He drank thirstily.

"I doubt that. What was normal back then?"

"I told her I was just letting her know."

"Steve, she's lived a lifetime. You've a future she has no part in."

"Do I? I never thought about after the war, I spent so long getting into it. Is that all there is for me?"

Tony looked down at Steve's belly. "What would you like to do?"

"I don't know. It's not like I need another job."

Tony wasn't good at hugs. He stepped in and squeezed tight. Maybe you just needed to be there.

"I do get that everyone and everything didn't just disappear. That's how it seems to me, but really life went on and on and on without me. I've got choices here I wouldn't have had then and yet sometimes I wonder if it was worth what I lost. It's horrible to question that, I had to crash the plane. I didn't _have_ anything, I'm missing Bucky who I lost capturing Dr. Zola, and Peggy who couldn't have lasted. I just wanted to hear I mattered, not because of who I became, or what I did, but because I was Steve Rogers."

Tony was kicked in the gut. "Is the baby playing soccer in there?" He lifted the hem of Steve's shirt. He watched the slight outward press, calculating the strength the baby must be building through resistance training.

Steve grabbed Tony's hand and placed it on his stomach over the baby.

"How do you deal with that?"

"It's how I know the baby is awake." Steve paused, "And how I know it's hungry."

"You don't know its gender."

"It's a baby."

"They have tests now. You don't have to wait until puberty." Tony thought a moment. "Can a child be undisclosed until puberty, JARVIS?"

"It would be irregular, but there are no statutes that they must be tested."

"You disapprove, JARVIS."

"Since the test became common, naming conventions have changed, avoiding Alphas with names more suitable for Omegas, or vis versa."

\-------------------

Steve breathed deep. "Go ahead." He watched the doctor draw the scalpel low across his stomach. The acupuncture seemed to be working. There had been times during the war he could have really done with this. He watched as his child was brought forth. He cut the umbilical cord when offered.

Compared to his hands the baby was tiny. She was placed on his chest to keep her warm while the doctor sewed him back up. It had been decided to limit the need to know to the barest minimum. Done with him, the doctor checked over the baby. Steve had already counted fingers and toes. Once she was returned to him, Steve sat up and got off the operating table. "Thank you." He walked out.

Natasha met him with a shirt and they exited S.H.E.I.L.D. to return to the tower. Clint was in the quinjet prepared for takeoff as they strapped in. Steve tested the temperature of the bottle and started to feed his daughter. He smiled at them, glad for the help. Quickly it was time to disembark.

Bruce, Thor and Tony were in the common lounge surrounded by a lot of food. Tony looked at him in surprise.

"Already?" Tony's eyes hardened. "Should you be here, not in medical?"

Steve laughed. "JARVIS, I want to be able to play this when Tony goes AMA."

"Understood, Captain Rogers."

"I stayed for stitches."  
Pepper and Coulson stepped out of the elevator and joined the rest of the Avengers. Clint smiled as Phil served a plate, and Pepper offered a babysling in verdigris and faded red.

"Thank you." Quickly the baby was wrapped almost as securely as when she'd been under his skin. He took the plate handed to him. "Thanks, Tony."

"JARVIS, replay your imagery of the baby."

Steve was still amazed by certain things, and the way the baby in perfect similitude was presented held by a schematized him none the least.

Tony inspected the holographic baby. After intense study, "May I?"

Steve nodded as Tony looked at him. Tony gently eased the hologram into his "hold". He'd seen Tony do that in the lab, manipulate some part before having it fabricated. Soon the rest clamored for a turn.

"Don't think that will hold them off forever." Pepper settled in next to Steve with her plate.

"I wouldn't want it to." He's just grateful that it doesn't have to be now, that he has a little more time while she is still just his.

"When is the Naming?" Thor was, for Thor, using an indoor voice for once, a very gentle one.

"Um, now?" Steve was surprised when Thor knelt. At least the rest of the Avengers didn't. "Penelope Alice Rogers, these are the Avengers, they are your family."

Thor lifted his head and touched his thumb to just behind her left ear. "You have my blessing, Penelope Alice Rogers. May you ever distinguish right from wrong, may you find worthy companions, may you not mistake fame for valor nor riches for wealth. I am Thor, son of Odin, and this is my Blessing." He stood and bowed to the newborn.

"I'll teach you to make a fulcrum."

Natasha's oath was whispered, and in Russian.

"Good aim is mostly observation." Clint looked at the others. "Juggling lessons?"

"Plan and be prepared to improvise."

Steve looked back at Phil. He'd signed the cards as soon as they came back from cleaning. He wondered if Fury would have admitted to his deception otherwise, but Steve had been told to give them back to Phil himself, which Steve later realized got Fury out of explaining their no longer near mint condition.

"I'll always make time for you." Pepper touched a wisp of Penny's hair.

"Love."

\--------------------------------

Tactical Command was harder that being in the fight. Steve Rogers wondered what had gotten into the supervillian water supply, because they all wanted something Now. He supposed it was a mercy they didn't all decide to want it in NYC. He itched to be with his team, but he couldn't leave Penelope with the au pair. Yet. He would, it was just difficult.

"Ironman, herd them back to the center. Thor, Black Widow needs a lift. Hawkeye, report."

There was an explosion.

"It worked. Let's get this cleaned up."

Steve kept his eyes and ears on them, but Clint had read things right.

He looked down at Nell and stood. He figured that if she didn't mind waking up, she'd be fine to feed now. Battles only lasted so long, but another one could break out.

"Captain Rogers, I will tend Penelope while you eat and shower."

Steve admitted that Tony was right, the nanny did sound just like Mary Poppins. They'd watched the movie on their inventor's insistence. He pulled Penny out of her sling, this one covered in outline stars. Phil deferred to her. He ate a drumstick from the rotisserie chicken, tossing the bone into the bin, and headed down to shower.

"Fix yourself a proper plate."

Steve kept having to fight down saluting her. "Yes, ma'am." Sometimes it felt like he was always eating. The scientists at S.H.E.I.L.D. had been horrified at what he'd described as his war rations. He hadn't had the heart to mention the times there hadn't been rations. They'd been commandoes, sometimes they didn't get resupplied. He easily ate three times as much now as then. Steve expected it was like the mass Bruce gained while the Other Guy was out.

Once he'd cleaned his plate, he approached Penelope on her blanket. Her French blanket, with pictures of cheeses, breads and produce. The other side was barnyard animals, also in French. Tony sometimes made ridiculous stories about Roquefort, Beaufort and Camembert. He suspected Jacques and Gabe would have been in stitches; Steve had learned rather a different sort of French in the process of Gabe relaying his plans.

Soon the rest team joined them, showered and changed. More food had arrived, and Tony poked him to have some. They had an informal debrief while they ate, then they started passing Penny about.

\-----------------

"Tony." Steve was confused by the kiss. "I'm not an Omega."

"If I wanted an Omega, don't you think I'd be Bonded?"

He had a point, though Steve resisted bringing up Howard.

"I make my own rules; that was dad's problem, he didn't have conviction."

Steve laughed. That wasn't Howard, not the Howard he'd known, but then the wild-eyed inventor and Tony's father were hard to reconcile.

"Think about it, Steve." Tony turned back to the movie.

**Author's Note:**

> I am looking for a dedicated MCU beta, I'm over at DW with a slightly longer moniker. PM if interested.


End file.
